Slouching Towards Bedlam was finalist for eight 2003 XYZZY Awards,[2] winning four:[3] Best Game, Setting, Story, and Individual NPC (for the protagonist's cybernetic assistant, Triage).

After investigation, it becomes clear that a now deceased patient, Cleve Anderson, has infected the player character with a mental virus known as the "Logos".

The virus spreads by spoken language, taking the form of a glossolalic babble uttered by the vector.

Part of the result of being infected with the virus is that the character recognizes and has access to some ability to control time, as represented by the normally meta-game commands "undo", "save", "restore", and "restart".

Investigation can optionally reveal that a secret society accidentally released the Logos while experimenting with magic.